WHAT WAS LEFT Nagasaki was the second target hit by an atomic bomb dropped by the US in Japan during World War II (Photo: Encyclopedia Britannica)

I grew up at a time the word Nagasaki, like Hiroshima, was synonymous with the atomic bomb. It also conjured up to me eyes bulging out of sockets, teeth falling off the mouth, skin and muscles melting off the bones. Try as they might, my history and geography teachers back in grade school could not paint a less horrifying portrait of Nagasaki, especially when discussing World War II.

NIGHT FALLS IN NAGASAKI Despite all that happened in 1945, Nagasaki is now a bustling yet relatively quiet and safe place, with quaint alleys like this for pleasant walks

I’ve been to Tokyo many times, but it never crossed my mind to go to Nagasaki, the far west of Japan, that is until Philippine Airlines (PAL), in celebrating its new route from Manila to Fukuoka and back, which it services daily, took a group of top-performing travel agents on a familiarization trip to this part of Japan.

The 10-man group, which calls itself TravelingBFFsPH, is a sort of consortium among top travel agencies in Manila and also a barkada of sorts. It formed at the height of the pandemic lockdowns, during which they joined forces, collaborating with airlines and local government units to help Philippine tourism get back on its feet. On a more personal basis, they also helped each other find their bearings while all operations, due to travel bans, were suspended.
The horrors of World War II are far behind Nagasaki now, but its lessons are never to be forgotten. A visit to the Nagasaki Peace Park may not be for the faint of heart, but as they say there is no moving forward for those who do not look back. The park complex includes the Atomic Bomb Museum whose display—saddening at best, terrifying at worst—includes mementos of personal lives lost as a result of the Fat Man plutonium bomb devastating the city on Aug. 9, 1945.

TRAVELINGBFFSPH The delegation of top-performing travel agents from Manila, who have formed a group called TravelingBFFsPH

The Nagasaki Peace Park, which sprawls on a hill slope, was lush with trees and flowers on the spring day I paid it a visit. It is also teeming with pieces of art, such as the Peace Statue, the Fountain of Peace, and a garden of other statues, many of which were given as expressions of sympathy from around the world.

The Peace Statue, a 10-meter-tall bronze sculpture created by Japanese artist Kitamura Seibō, is a study of meanings—its right hand points to the heavens, as if to warn against nuclear weapons falling from the sky while its extended left hand, gesturing for calm, symbolizes peace. The figure, a symbol of the divine love and mercy of Buddha, is seated, but its left leg is positioned so that it is ready to get right back up. Its eyes are half-closed in prayer for the souls of the bombing victims as well as for peace on earth. Every year, on Aug. 9, a peace memorial ceremony is held in front of this statue, which is central to the Nagasaki Peace Park.

Although Aug. 9 is soon coming up maybe as a stark reminder that we never learn, especially with the war in Europe, between Russia and Ukraine, raging on and China and the US playing their mind games for world domination, enough of bombs and wars and nuclear annihilation!
Nagasaki was only one of five places I was to visit in five days that were within driving distance from Fukouka, where my PAL flight from Manila deposited me and from where, at the end of this trip, I was to fly back home.

WATER AS PORTAL The dockyard at Kujuku-shima

Even then, Nagasaki has so much more to offer than the harsh lessons of World War II. There’s also Huis Ten Bosch, a theme park on Hario Island in Sasebo, Nagasaki, which recreates a Dutch town. Named after a palace in The Hague, it’s a garden of tulips in a rainbow of colors or other flowers in season, with windmills, canals, and amusement rides, to boot, and at night, even on the rainy night I was there, the whole park is illuminated in a light show, accompanied by performances.

FLOWERS FOR YOU Tulips in all colors abloom in the garden at Huis Ten Bosch

Huis Ten Bosch, which translates to “house in the woods,” is commemorative of Japan’s long history with the Netherlands, with whom its relations date back to the early 1600s, when the Dutch established a trading post on an island off the coast of Kyushu, just 35 kilometers away from the park. It’s a great destination to consider if you are looking to make the best Wes Anderson-inspired reel ever, with its collection of Dutch Colonial Revival buildings.
Just as reel-worthy is the Glover Garden perched on top of Minami-Yamate Hill, overlooking the Nagasaki harbor. Presiding over the garden is the Glover Mansion, which once belonged to the Scottish merchant Thomas Blake Glover, one of the pioneers in the industrialization of Japan, with a hand in the founding of the Mitsubishi Corporation and the Japan Brewery Company, now Kirin Brewery Company.

WINDMILLS ON YOUR MIND Huis Ten Bosch, named after a palace in The Hague, honors Dutch and Japanese relations that go back to the 16th century

Wait, first Dutch, now Scottish, though not really, because the Glover Mansion, foreign-looking as it does with its Georgian aesthetic touches, replete with French windows and latticed arches, is essentially Japanese in structure with tiled roofs to show for it. The question is: Are we really in Japan? Yes!
You must remember that Japan was closed off to the world from 1603 to 1868. For 265 years, during the Edo period, no foreigner was allowed in and no Japanese was allowed out, but Nagasaki, one of only four gateways across Japan for foreign entities, was open to trade and relations with foreigners, and so here they flocked, particularly the Chinese, the Dutch, and the Portuguese, but also the British, the Russians, and the Americans, even Spanish missionaries.

FOREIGN SETTLEMENT This is the former Mitsubishi No. 2 Dock House, one of 10 European-style mansions at the Glover Garden

MADE IN JAPAN The Glover Mansion, foreign-looking as it does with its Georgian aesthetic touches, replete with French windows and latticed arches, is essentially Japanese in structure with tiled roofs to show for it

THE HEARTH OF GLOVER HOUSE inside the Glover Mansion, which once belonged to the Scottish merchant Thomas Blake Glover, one of the pioneers in the industrialization of Japan

There are nine other European-style mansions at the Glover Garden, many of which have been converted, like the Glover House, into cafés, restaurants, museums, and events spaces. My favorite spot is where a gleaming white statue of Giacomo Puccini stands, just outside the Glover Mansion, which offers perhaps the most picturesque view of the harbor. The Italian composer is said to never have set foot in Nagasaki, but he made it so popular, thanks to one of his three most world-acclaimed operas Madama Butterfly, the tragic story, set in Nagasaki, of a Japanese girl who falls blindly for an American naval officer. I sat on a bench and looked at the sea-and-sky vista dotted with ships and wondered if Puccini saw all these in his mind as he wrote all five versions of the opera in the early 1900s. Close by is the bronze statue of the Japanese opera diva Tamaki Miura, who performed and gained world fame for the role of Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly.

PUCCINI IN NAGASAKI The Italian composer Giacomo Puccini is said to never have set foot in Nagasaki, but he made it so popular, thanks to his world-acclaimed opera Madama Butterfly, the tragic story, set in Nagasaki, of a Japanese girl who falls for an American naval officer

KUJUKU-SHIMA CRUISING The author aboard The Pearl Queen with the Kujuku-shima Pirate Boat Mirai, the first electric propulsion boat in Japan, in the background

Also in Nagasaki is Kujūku-shima, which translates to “99 islands,” but there are more islands interwoven in this 25-kilometer-wide stretch of sea between Sasebo City and Hirado City, 208 in all, only four of which are inhabited. We took a 50-minute cruise on the Pearl Queen to take in the views of pearl farms and forests dense with evergreens. We wrapped up the day’s adventure at the Saikai Pearl Sea Resort, where we took a tour of the Umi Kirara Saikai National Park Aquarium, which I found meditative watching some of the 13,000 marine creatures in it as though I were in the deep, no scuba gear needed. Particularly hypnotic to me was the Jellyfish Symphony Dome, literally an underwater show, replete with soul-soothing music.
Nagasaki is an empowering place. In it you come up close and personal with the human ability to rise from the ashes of utter devastation. So if you feel you’re in the dumps, get right back up on your feet. Do some traveling if you need restoration.

THE SYMPHONY OF THE JELLYFISH Hypnotic is the display of various kinds of jellyfish at the Jellyfish Symphony Dome of the Umi Kirara Saikai National Park Aquarium, literally an underwater show, replete with soul-soothing music

Book a trip to this part of Japan through Travel Warehouse Inc. Philippine Airlines flies direct to Fukuoka daily from Manila and back. www.twi.com.ph | www.philippineairlines.com